Monday, November 14, 2011

Biweekly ferry service to Male soon

India will soon launch
a cargo-cum-passenger ferry service between Kochi and Male, the capital
of Maldives, giving an impetus to Kochi-based exporters to open up new
business ventures.
The shipping ministry has plans to operate
two biweekly services in this sector and it is expected to start
operations within a few weeks.

"Cochin Port will soon invite
private operators interested in operating the service," said K Mohandas,
secretary, Shipping Ministry of India. Last July, a delegation led by
Mohandas and Mohamed Latheef,
permanent secretary, ministry of transport and communication of
Maldives, agreed to operate ferry service between Kochi and Male. Later,
at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit,
which concluded in Maldives on Friday, both the governments took the
decision to complete the preliminary work for the service by the end of
this year.

"Initially we will operate a cargo ferry service,
similar to the one between Colombo and Tuticorin, from Kochi port to
Maldives," a senior official at Cochin Port Trust (CPT) revealed.

"Currently a relatively smaller ferry is operating between Tuticorin
and Male through the shallow waters of the Palk Strait. It transports
vegetables and groceries from Tamil Nadu. The new service is expected to
improve the trade between India and Maldives, and groceries from south
Tamil Nadu could be sent to Maldives markets on relatively bigger ferry
from Kochi," the official explained, adding: "Using a larger vessel
would also bring down the cost of transportation."

"Maldives now imports goods, including light engineering merchandises and automobiles worth $1 billion per annum, mainly from Dubai and Singapore.
The new ferry service from Kochi would help India develop a new market
for our engineering products like motors in Maldives, and we expect this
trade of value-added products to increase gradually in the coming
years," the port official said.
CPT is now preparing for the
launch of the ferry service by getting the berth and terminal for
passengers and cargo ready. This month, a team of senior port officials
from Maldives is expected to visit Kochi to discuss the arrangements to
be made at their end to facilitate the ferry service.